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Soldiers equipped with the Stryker -- a transformational, multi-wheeled armored vehicle -- are soon slated to take up duty in the Mosul, Iraq, area of operations, according to a Combined Joint Task Force 7 news release today. The 1st Corps headquarters element from Fort Lewis, Wash., arrived in Mosul Jan. 17. In early February, the release noted, 1st Corps is slated to relieve the 101st Airborne Division of control of military operations around Mosul in northern Iraq. The 1st Corps headquarters element will become the Multi-National Brigade North when authority is transferred from the 101st, according to the release. The...

<p>TACOMA, Wash. — Authorities in the Beltway Sniper investigation are looking for two "people of interest," law enforcement sources told Fox News.</p> <p>The two individuals they seek are John Mohammed, also known as John Allen Williams, formerly connected to Fort Lewis, an Army base south of Tacoma, Wash., and Lee Malvo.</p>

TIKRIT, IRAQ - A roadside bomb destroyed a Stryker vehicle with the Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade. A scout platoon on a reconnaissance mission south of Tikrit ran over what the military calls an improvised explosive device. The soldiers inside got out safely but the 19 ton vehicle caught fire and burned out of control. "There was a small explosion, and the engine caught fire. The soldiers inside got out and tried to put the fire out but it got out of control and started setting off the ammunition," said ABC news producer in Iraq, Mike Gudgell. One soldier in the...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Three soldiers from the Stryker Brigade Combat Team were killed in an accident during a combat patrol in Iraq Sunday night, ABC News reports. A fourth soldier was injured. The accident occurred after an embankment on an unimproved road collapsed, causing two Stryker infantry carrier vehicles to roll over into a canal. ABC News says it was not a result of hostile fire. Heavy rainfall in the area might have been a cause, but the Army is still investigating. The names of those killed have not been released.

Reported rape stuns Stryker unit MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - A female Stryker brigade soldier reported she was raped, brigade officials said Saturday. The sexual assault apparently occurred late Friday or early Saturday outside a women's shower trailer in one of the tent cities where brigade soldiers are living before they move up to Iraq. Detectives from the Army's Criminal Investigation Division on Saturday taped off an area around a cargo container next to the shower trailer. The CID agents from Camp Arifjan, another Army post near Kuwait City, are handling the investigation. The brigade's public...

The support our troops rally outside of Ft. Lewis WAS a great success, but you wouldn't know it to watch NWCN cable news. Oh they showed us waving Old Glory, alright, but their news story was completely centered around the small band of pitiful protestors. NOTHING positive at all in NWCN coverage of this rally. Did I hear someone say there's no such thing as left wing media bias? Well check out NWCN!

PIERCE COUNTY - As many troops reported for duty in Pierce County Saturday, they ran a gauntlet that even caught some of them off guard. It was a massive display of support. "Thank you troops for freedom! We love you!" said one supporter. Troops driving to Camp Murray or Fort Lewis Saturday had not doubt of that love. Supporters packed four different overpasses on I-5, waving American flags and carrying sings of support. "This is what patriotism is all about man, " said one man The biggest crowds gathered at the Berkely street entrance to Camp Murray. Claudia Gaska...

Well by the numbers we whooped the commie SOBs!! We drove south from Seattle and were looking for exit 122. When we got to exit 126 we saw a large group of people with flags. We almost thought we had the exit number wrong but we kept on. At the next exit there were more people and the next and then at #122 it was a sea of Red, White and Blue. Old Glory has rarely had a prouder day than she did today. The Anit-war crowd had a special meeting to make signs. Most of us had one flying...

Todays support the Troops rally at Camp Murray (FT Lewis, Washington state) was a resounding success!I arrived an hour early and the Supporters had already spanned Exit 122 and the surrounding streets! This show of support was for the largest call up of National Guard in decades. The organization "Not in Our Name" had threatened to protest the arrival of troops of the 81st Armored Brigade, and other detachments reporting for training duty before their deployment to Iraq.Word got out that the loonies from Seattle were going to show up at exit 122 to make a stink about the war,...

A memo of a planned "sign holding" by the "not in our name" radicals scehduled for today was leaked. They planned to organize and confront the 3,000 service members who are reporting to Fort Lewis this weekend for deployment. They encouraged their people to make signs such as :Question Authority, Your recruiter lied, Bush Lied, Thousands Died etc." This hit the local talk radio and the call went out to counter their group. John Carlson called out the fighting 570th brigade (for radio station 570 KVI) and I am sure they will get a good turn out. The plan is...

A Muslim chaplain who was stationed at Fort Lewis in 2001 and 2002 is the first known U.S. soldier to be detained in the U.S.-led war on terror. Army Capt. Yousef Yee, 34, was detained Sept. 10 in Jacksonville, Fla., after returning from Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba, where he was stationed. He has not been charged, but a senior law enforcement source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Saturday that FBI agents confiscated classified documents Yee was carrying and questioned him before he was handed over to the military. The New York Times reported in a story...

Muslims in the U.S. military are as loyal as any, chaplain says Saturday, October 20, 2001 By MIKE BARBER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER FORT LEWIS -- Each Friday, soldiers in battle-dress camouflage here remove their boots, face Mecca and prostrate themselves, heads bowed to the carpet in obedience to Allah. In the military base's Islamic Chapel Center, they recite their Jumah prayers, following the lead of Capt. James Yee, a West Point graduate and a convert to Islam who is chaplain of Fort Lewis' largest battalion. (and now charged with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying) More than a month after...

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) - A whisper of cool, mountain air slips through an open window in Col. Michael Rounds' office at this quiet Army post in the shadow of the Cascades. The setting could hardly be more unlike what Rounds' soldiers will face shortly in hot and chaotic Iraq. Rounds commands a newly formed Stryker brigade combat team - the first of its kind, intended as a model for the Army of the future, and scheduled to make its combat debut in Iraq within two months. ``The brigade is ready to go,'' Rounds said in an interview. Rounds' unit,...

Nampa Student Told Never To Wear T-shirt Again By Jim Poston NAMPA - Is it patriotism or gun violence? It's the question at the heart of a flap at a Nampa elementary school. Park Ridge elementary school officials told 11-year-old Ethan Jansen to stop wearing his military themed T-shirt to school. The T-shirt depicts a monument at the Fort Lewis military base in Washington state. It shows "Iron mike" hoisting a rifle with a star in the background. School officials say pictures showing gangs or guns are not allowed in school. But Ethan's parents call the T-shirt an expression...

<p>An early Sunday vehicle shooting between Maytown and Grand Mound has been linked to a Fort Lewis soldier suspected of similar shootings in Lacey and Lewis County, according to the Thurston County Sheriff's Office. Sgt. Jeremiah Daniel Blankenship, 22, pleaded not guilty Thursday and is being held in Lewis County Jail on $1 million bail on charges of first-degree assault with a firearm and driving under the influence. His trial is set for Nov. 25.</p>

Coast Guard helicopters found the bodies of three Fort Lewis soldiers in the waters of Willapa Bay yesterday, a day after the men went on a weekend fishing trip. Sgt. 1st Class David Eville and his friends, 1st Sgt. Howard Hinkle and Sgt. 1st Class Robert Hulin, launched Eville's 20-foot power boat from the boat ramp at Westport Saturday morning, Coast Guard Petty Officer Robert Lanier said. All three wore flotation devices. Eville's wife later told investigators the men had planned to go fishing. The bodies were turned over to the Pacific County Coroner's Office, but no cause of death...